Painting Lore: Miniatures Inspired by the Story

The original entry in the world of Batteltech for the now famous Kell Hounds was the death of Ian Davion on Mallory's World.  Here the 2nd Sword of Light caught the Davion first prince and killed him as he covered a withdrawal of his Guards off world.  With the Prince down one the field the Kell Hounds rushed the 2nd Sworders to secure the body and prevent it being carried off to the Combine as a trophy.  The original Kell Hounds scenario book has one such meeting between Zakahashi's Zombies (see previous project post) and the 1st Co. of the Kell Hounds 2nd Battalion which I have recreated here. The Kell Hounds are one of the most Iconic of units in the Battletech universe, taking a central role as a way of telling the story of the 4th Succession Wars as well as acting as a kind of window into the Clans via Phelan Kell's capture by Clan Wolf in the Clan Invasion.  Always portrayed as tactical genius and elite; the Kell Hounds have always been donned in expansive plot...

In 3024 the world of Altais was defended by the 5th Sword of Light when Waco's Rangers dropped on the world in an attempt to raid a supply depot. The mercs, in Steiner employ, rapidly marched on Supply Depot 23 for which Sorenson's Sabers arranged a defense in conjunction with the limited planetary defense forces they could muster - in this case a platoon of the 255th Armored Cavalry and a the 107th Motorized Infantry Company.  This project is part of my love of the poor infantryman in this game - they are rarely decisive, but when deployed in strength and in the right way, can make a difference to the wider game.  And they are cheap - oh so cheap.  Planetary garrisons can field infantry in division strength at times - and in campaign play quantity has a quality all its own.  This is the first company in a battalion of DCMS motorized infantry - one company each of jeep, quad bike and motorcycle troops.  This particular set up was kitbashed from a light jeep mode...

 This is an update project - I had originally created a lance of Tokugawa and Bulldogs to go with a mixed company for the 4th Succession War but as I had been expanding the DCMS forces I decided to make a company of this project rather than a single lance.  Here you have a company of the 53rd Vegan Lancers in the defense of Vega circa 3028 in the fourth succession war - all done in my SOP DCMS Armor regiment khaki.   The Tokugawa is a classic DCMS design, though it did not get cover art or details until the clan invasion - fortunately the powers that govern Battletech retconned some succession war era stats to go along with a single line mention in the House Kurita sourcebook.  It was these two variants I used for this project - the TKG-150 and TKG-151.  The 150 is a simple downgrade with an AC/10 in place of the upgrades LB-10X.  The TKG-151 takes the opposite approach to stopping power in the hopes range will suffice with 2x AC/2's.  This is a q...

Zakahashi's Zombies were a company of the 2nd Sword of Light regiment in the late succession wars period, participating in the Mallory's World campaign of 3013.  This company has the distinction of being at the site of Ian Davion's death at the hands of Yorinaga Kurita.  When Yorinaga felled the prince, the Kell Hounds charges in to recover his body.  It was Zakahashi's Zombies, among other companies of the 2nd Sword, who met there charge.   This unit is taken directly from the Kell Hounds scenario book in the scenario 'To Save A Prince'.  Zakahashi's Zombies faced off against the Kell Hounds 1st Company of its Second Battalion - a unit I will detail in a later post.  This is the first installment of my next major scenario book project - in the Kell Hounds scenario book there are details of the complete Kell Hounds unit, as well as a battalion of the 2nd Sword of Light.

This has been a labor of love for about 2 years.  I bought the Battalion Force Mat more or less on a whim, and then had to explain what this giant box was when it arrived.  After quit a bit of painting off and on, and a lot of printing of features I have a complete laydown in 3d of the BFM on the desert side.  I am unsure if I will do the woodlands side in this level of detail - there are over 130 tree hexs - but I will for sure produce some woodl and terrain. The major benefit of this project; besides being awesome, is that with the baseline desert hills you basically have all the terrain you could want for any scenario - with the new trend towards flat battlemats for place your own terrain this will no doubt be the future of even hex'ed classic Battletech. All of he terrain is from he HexTech terrain line - and they are awesome.  All the tree hexs are from my personal Cult .STL collection - available for free if anyone wants them.

With the completion of a light wheeled company of vehicles in the DCMS scheme I have completed a full battalion of vehicles in service to the Dragon... the first of what is planned to be a full regiment of Succession Wars /Clan Invasion units. This unit is conspicous in that it was made before the Merc Kick starters was released and so featured 2 sculpts of the Galleon at odds with the revised; old is new again, art.  The first company features the more tank like Galleon from HBS video game, and the second is a full company of Nu-Seen Galleons.  I may need to revisit my DCMS regiment at some point to include some of the newest Galleon models... Perhaps as a command lance?  We will see. This battalion consist of the following TO&E: 1089th Light Armor Support Group: 1st Platoon:  2x Hunter Lt Tanks; 2x Scorpion Lt Tank 2nd Platoon:  4x Scorpion Lt. Tanks 3rd Platoon:  4x Galleon Lt Tanks 3rd Strike Co. 12x Galleon Lt Tanks 11th Armored Co. 1st Platoon:...